


Crossing Paths

by hibiren



Series: Jay's FFXV Halloween Week 2019 Fics [5]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Bathing/Washing, Campfires, Camping, Fantasy, Fauns & Satyrs, First Meetings, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Late Night Conversations, M/M, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Nature, Nature Magic, Nighttime, One Shot, Rivers, Romance, Satyr!Ignis, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-13 00:07:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21234836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hibiren/pseuds/hibiren
Summary: [FFXV Halloween Week, Day Five] While out camping, Gladio runs into a strange creature with a message for him.





	Crossing Paths

**Author's Note:**

> Just finished! Slightly late but I still made it :3
> 
> **Featuring [FFXV Halloween Week](https://twitter.com/FFXVhalloweenwk)'s Prompts**:  
**Scenario**: Around the Campfire  
**Mod's Choice**: Creatures & Cryptids Looking for Love

A rustling off in the near distance caught Gladio’s attention as he poked idly at the dying coals of his campfire. He’d decided to leave the city for a while, to go camping out in the woods in his favorite mountain range. It was just him, his tent, the crackle of the campfire and the hum of nighttime nature surrounding him. Thinking it was just a cat or some other small creature, Gladio shrugged and went back to prodding the charring wood with his campfire stick, but the rustling continued persistently. There was this odd feeling in the back of Gladio’s mind that something was calling to him.

So, he decided to humor it. He had nothing to lose.

After dumping a large bucket of water that he’d gathered earlier from the river across the glowing coals, he set the bucket down beside his fire and tried to trace the sound of the noise. Although it looked like brambles crossed every foot in front of him, nothing tore at his clothes. It was a bit eerie. The moon hanging low and bright and full in the sky cast strange, flickering shadows through the trees, but Gladio just continued heading toward that rustling sound - was it growing more distant, or was he getting closer? Was he just chasing something imaginary?

He was surprised to find himself in an empty clearing, cut through by the same river he’d gathered his campfire water from earlier. That strange rustling had stopped as he made a move to step out into the clearing to take a look around, yet something made him pause.

Some distance away a shirtless man sat, head bent and back facing Gladio, making scrubbing motions as if he were washing a stain out of something. To his side was a fire, burning gentle yet steady despite the evening breeze. When Gladio stepped closer and accidentally onto a large fallen dead branch, the loud _crunch_ made the man turn and that was when Gladio thought his heart would stop in shock.

Yes, that blond was naked - but he was no man. How had he not noticed the curved horns protruding from its head? Beautiful tawny-mahogany fur slicked wet to the stranger’s body and where its feet should have been, two point-tipped black hooves shined as droplets of water fell free and onto the ground beneath. It was the most perfect, handsome creature Gladio had ever seen.

And it was smiling at him.

“Sorry, I… thought I heard something. I just, uh… I’d been in the middle of putting out my campfire, but, uh… I can go, I don’t wanna disturb you - ” Gladio stuttered, unable to stop the way his eyes darted from the strange creature’s to the furred legs, back to his eyes as if to ask _what are you? Where did you come from?_

“You have questions, don’t you, human?” asked the creature, and just hearing the stranger talk sent unnervingly tingling pulses of anxiety through Gladio’s body. “Come, sit by my fire and we can chat as long as you’d like.”

This wasn’t exactly something Gladio knew he could turn down. Even if it turned out to be a man in a costume, there was just something mysterious to the stranger, to the timing, even the atmosphere around them. Gladio, being somewhat of a superstitious person, thought it best to err on the side of caution and do as this creature asked of him. Best to keep on Nature’s good side, especially when he was out there camping in the middle of nowhere.

So Gladio sat and the creature turned more fully toward Gladio while he ruffled his fingers through the fur on his legs to dry them off.

“What are you called, friend? I don’t wish to be impolite by continuing to refer to you as ‘human,’” the stranger asked, offering a smile.

“Uh… Gladiolus. But Gladio’s fine.”

“Ah, you’re named after quite a lovely flower. I understand why you’re able to see me now. Most humans never do… they’re so caught up in each other, in destroying their surroundings, and making such a fuss in all hours that they give no respect to - mm, I’m sorry, I… distracted myself. I didn’t introduce myself yet. You may call me Ignis, as that is the most accurate of the translations to your tongue that you can pronounce. I am a satyr, a spirit and a guardian of these woods and rivers, and I… greatly value your company this evening,” said Ignis, an odd sadness in his voice as he spoke almost forlornly.

“Ignis,” Gladio said, and as the name left his lips, just a hint of the taste of smoke and spices filled his mouth and his lungs. “I hope I… wasn’t interrupting anything?”

“No, I bathe myself under the light of the full moon every cycle. I find it purifies the water much moreso than any other evening and I prefer to keep my fur as clean as I possibly can. Some others of my kind prefer their more… _natural_ bodies, so to speak. They wish to live covered in earth as much as they walk upon it. It’s as if it’s written into their souls to do so, but I personally don’t enjoy it. I would rather… focus my energy onto other things.”

“Oh?” Gladio asked, leaning forward and letting the warmth of the campfire help keep the growing chill of the night away.

“Perhaps this is silly of me to say with grandiosity, but this meeting was fated to occur. Every night when I sleep, I see images of this river, of campfires, and of a human male that - ” Ignis paused and reached out for Gladio’s shirt, tugging at the fabric.

“May I?”

_This is a bit sudden,_ Gladio thought somewhat awkwardly as he just nodded. Again, saying no to such a creature was likely a bad idea. And if it meant he had to strip down to nothing in front of his new companion, he’d do it. At least Ignis was attractive enough to make it worth it, all things considered in the end…

Ignis slowly slipped Gladio’s shirt free and placed it atop a bundle of fabric behind him that must have been his own clothing. The satyr stared, transfixed by the tattoo that covered Gladio’s chest, arms, and back.

“It is you, the bird and the man from my dream… I thought this day would never come. I have been entrusted to deliver you a message from those above; they wished to send me to you so that you may see the wonders and the magic of the forest, and perhaps convince other humans not to destroy our lands so carelessly.”

“Well, I mean, uh, I do what I can. I try not to litter and I always put my fires out. And… stuff.” Although Gladio liked to consider himself a man of nature, having a forest spirit sitting directly next to him just made him realize how much he didn’t know. Gladio still wondered if this was all just some kind of in-character act by a thespian from the local theater but…

“You keep staring at my legs, Gladiolus, do they bother you?” Ignis asked, a sly smile hinting at his mouth. “Or do they surprise you? If you’re doubting, you may touch them. I’ve sufficiently dried off enough to hopefully not smell of wet animal any longer.”

When Gladio hesitated, Ignis gently took hold of Gladio’s hand and brought it to the fur at his thigh. It was soft, thick hair and even somewhat curled as it dried in the fire’s warmth. There was skin beneath, but it was all real. There was nothing ‘fake’ that Gladio could detect and although he found it somewhat alarming, he was relieved in a way too. He wasn’t going crazy - was he?

“Would you like to stay here with me for a while longer?”

“I… yeah.”

“Tell me about yourself, Gladiolus,” the satyr hummed, moving close to Gladio and resting his head on Gladio’s shoulder over tattooed feathers. His fingers traced lazy, slow patterns against each of the long feathers at his arm, down and back, a repetitively soothing touch. “I would like to know about you, more than from what I’ve seen in my dreams. What do you dream of? What is your life like?”

Although Gladio wasn’t sure where to start, he’d eventually told Ignis about as much of his immediate life as he could recall. It was hard not to stop, once he’d started; as if letting a bird free from a cage. Ignis continued tracing the lines of Gladio’s tattoo until something strange began to happen. When Gladio paused to look down at his body where Ignis curled up against him, he realized that Ignis’ touches were _pulling_ the tattoo free from his skin. Turning his ink into _real feathers._

“What are you d - ..?!”

“Shh. Relax. Trust me,” crooned the satyr lovingly against Gladio’s ear, and he just froze obediently and let Ignis continue. “I’m freeing you of your burdens. This bird is weighing you down, is it not? Reminding you of an unpleasant past.”

It was true - he had mentioned it to Ignis but he’d tried not to lend too much emotion to his thoughts on it; it seemed Ignis had been able to pick up on it nonetheless and decided to do something about it. Gladio wasn’t sure whether to be thankful for this or upset by it.

With one last sweep of his hand, feathers scattered as a large red and black bird trailing ink circled over their heads. Ignis raised his hand and closed it into a fist, and the bird disappeared in a swirl of fire, leaving nothing but red dust behind lingering suspended like a cloud in the air.

“Don’t worry, Gladiolus, I’ve cast you a phoenix. Whatever plagued you in the past has been banished. You may rise anew, begin again, as do the sunrise and the seasons. You are free.”

_Free?_

It wasn’t a word Gladio had thought applied to him in a long time. Even going out to the forest just for a while, he still never felt free because he knew he had to go back home, had to go back to his normal life and the constant pretending that everything was alright.

“Thank you,” was all Gladio could say for a long while, before he finally spoke up again. “Will I… be able to come back and visit you?”

“Whenever you’d like. The phoenix will guide you to me.”

“But you lit it on fire a while ago?”

“Ah, but look at your arms, Gladiolus.”

When he did, Gladio realized that in place of those deep black carved lines, gentle reds and oranges and yellows like tendrils of fire spread across his arms and up to his shoulders, where the form of a new bird graced his shoulder, a regal crest of blue and purple and white curving out like waves from its head. _A phoenix._

“Come find me when the moon is full again. I’ll be waiting for you.”

As soon as Gladio blinked, had tried to say something - he was back at his campsite. Lazy curls of smoke and steam rose from the pit where the coals from his fire remained. The forest was silent around him, no longer ambient with the noise of insects or rustling leaves. With a flustered sigh, Gladio grabbed his lantern, switched it on, and retired to his tent for the night. Perhaps he’d just _really_ needed to sleep… but there was no explaining the warmth that lingered in his body from where the satyr had gifted him the phoenix; warmth that traced each inked feather and left him feeling like he was floating as he curled up into his sleeping bag and gave in to the urge to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> ah after a long day of work, I was able to write this idea! Satyrs are a fantasy type I really love ; u ; wouldn't Ignis make the most beautiful satyr ever? I'd probably cry if I saw satyr!Iggy sitting there so close, Gladio's lucky lol


End file.
